Chiffon pie that doesn't look right

There's something ineluctably aspic-y about this 1958 chiffon pie picture -- I can't escape the feeling that this is a pie filled with ground organ meat and shredded pickles.

I dunno, this just doesn't look appetizing.

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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http://goodsharer.com/ Aloisius

Interesting fact, Harry Baker created the chiffon cake in 1927 and managed to keep the recipe a secret for 20 years before selling it to General Mills.
PhosPhorious

I bet even banana-cream-pie-boy wouldn’t crack a smile over that.
pupdog

Something’s not quite right about that pie…
- blueelm
  
  How completely sublime. I’m both terrified and overjoyed.
Peppermint

It looks like an omelette with a crust and whipped cream on top. *shivers*
- http://www.facebook.com/lascarrunz Lisa Ascarrunz
  
  That sounds like yummy quiche! (hold the sugar!)
  - Peppermint
    
    Well, if you replace the candied fruit with lardons, and the whipped cream with normal cream, you’ve basically got a quiche lorraine.
    
    (Another fun French-related fact: “chiffon” means “rag” or “tatter”… “rag pie”, hmm, tasty. Now with 10% more dust!)
  - MadRat
    
    I thought it was quiche before I read the text.
bcsizemo

Why is the pie slice growing taller as it gets toward the tip? Why does the tip appear to be staring at me?
Shibi_SF

Who put cinnamon sticks in my chile con queso?
http://profile.yahoo.com/WGDKHGKTENRXNYZSFCLBTWWAPE Erik

Totally would. Would cover it in that Bird’s trifle topping thats mostly vegetable oil and sugar, too.
Hell yes.
drublin

It’s like none of you have ever had candied fruits (See step 2).
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  In an egg and cheese frittata?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

“No mistakes possible!”

Well. Other than choosing make the thing in the first place.
http://twitter.com/cookingmonstr Dave Faris

I’ve always heard tell about “happy endings,” but I never imagined that it involved candied fruit and jello mix.
- fuzzyfuzzyfungus
  
  It’ll cost you extra; but the better establishments understand the value of customer service…
- malindrome
  
  Chiffon pie … with ‘release’!
Boundegar

Clearly, it’s quiche.

Fruit chiffon quiche.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

Which holiday would you whip this thing up for?
- Shibi_SF
  
  I’m stuck on the chile con queso resemblance (Velveeta + Rotel), so I’d probably make this for Cinco de Mayo.
- malindrome
  
  Pearl Harbor Day. It’s like a sneak attack on your stomach.
ryuthrowsstuff

Looks like mullet roe
swlabr

Larks Tongues in Aspic.
salsaman

“Ineluctably” kind of ruined the happy ending for me. Not as bad as “bespoke” but… not a word to use. Ever.
Halloween_Jack

I can’t escape the feeling that this is a pie filled with ground organ meat and shredded pickles.

I can’t believe that there isn’t something in British cuisine that is essentially this.
Kaden Harris

Nobody does regrettable food better than James Lileks…

http://www.lileks.com/institute/gallery/
- BombBlastLightingWaltz
  
  Awesome link to a well written and humourous site.
  - http://twitter.com/MartianEmpress Rezeya Montecore
    
    Written by a deranged right-wing crank, sadly. It’s a shame, Lileks’s politics are as petty and mean as his retro sites are funny.
    - Kaden Harris
      
      Some of you guys won’t let up on the whole ‘Left/Right’ thing for even a second will you?
      - http://twitter.com/MartianEmpress Rezeya Montecore
        
        Uh… you know, I think it’s pretty safe to say that Lileks started this one. He’s said some pretty abusive and uncharitable things about causes and people I really care about. I don’t think you have any right to assume that I’m being a fanatic because I find his beliefs both dangerously extreme and profoundly uncivil, thank you very much, Kaden.
        
        Given that sweeping, insulting generalizations — and NOT any specific political affiliation — are what turned me off of Lileks to start with (and I used to be quite a fan, actually, so it took him some effort), you are certainly not endearing yourself to me by committing a similar offense. If you had bothered to get to know me, you’d know I’m extremely skeptical of mainstream “liberals” and a pretty harsh critic of the left’s history of collaboration with Stalinism, and I have a habit of playing devil’s advocate for right-wingers when I think they have a reasonable point getting lost amid all the partisan noise.
        
        More than anything, I’m deeply insulted you’d put me on a political scale I don’t even believe in, just for correctly characterizing Lileks’s beliefs as (a) right-wing and (b) crackpot without insinuating in the slightest that those two concepts necessarily must coincide.
        
        (TL;DR: “I don’t know who shat in your cornflakes, Kaden, but it was not me.”)
      - http://twitter.com/MartianEmpress Rezeya Montecore
        
        Okay, after running across http://boingboing.net/2012/06/30/excellent-list-of-reasons-to-h.html#comment-573167765 it seems pretty obvious that you’ve got a hammer and you’re just running around looking for nails. I really regret bringing this matter up with you.
- jackbird
  
  What about http://www.thesneeze.com/steve-dont-eat-it/ ? I still occasionally giggle about his shooped Huitzilopotchli can years later.
http://www.millsworks.net/blog Robbo

That is the mortadella of pies.
rattypilgrim

Post WWII America’s sudden appearance of a huge middle class, their faith in science, industry, and the possibilities the future might bring, gave birth to “instant” foods. It promised women more freedom and hyped itself as the modern way to cook. Using real ingredients (not to mention fresh) was your grandmother’s way. Pre-packaged, instant foods was the stuff of astronauts and would take little shelf room in your backyard atom bomb shelter. Fifty years later, name your dooms day scenario freak, is stacking up on more high tech, less fluffy versions. It was Julia Childs (with a little help of the Back to the Earth movement) who got Americans to consider what they were eating and why they were eating it.
- http://twitter.com/writebastard Ian Wood
  
  But not too free. Betty Crocker’s original boxed cake mix included powdered eggs–all you had to do was add water and oil to it. But focus testing results were interpreted as showing that this made housewives feel “lazy,” like they weren’t doing enough for their families. They took the powdered eggs out, so you had to add water, oil, and crack and egg into it. Thus! Homemakers could feel modern and fulfilled.
  - rattypilgrim
    
    I can just see a Kids in the Hall skit where Bruce in drag whines about having to add water and oil to the cake mix! “I thought this was supposed to get me out of the kitchen and, and,….”
  - AlexG55
    
    Water, oil, crack and egg? That’s an interesting cake…
http://www.geekforce.com Hugh Johnson

Wow, a pie will give me a happy ending? Where have I been?
- penguinchris
  
  I have not actually seen this movie, but I was 13 when it came out so I heard about pretty much every scene at summer camp and so I am aware that this happened: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCAOKR1jpp0
pjcamp

The unholy spawn of a fruit cake and a cellulose sponge.

But it needs more Spam.
Melinda9

Just speaking as someone who grew up in the 50s and 60s, my mother never served the prepackaged, instant food except for the occasional jello. Not even the mashed potatoes in the box. Nor did I see it much in friends’ homes. We didn’t even have such junk food as existed then because junk food ‘cost too much’.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  We ate real food, as well. Homemade chocolate cake with homemade chocolate buttercream frosting.
  - Melinda9
    
    I don’t think there was much variety as far as fresh vegetables in the grocery. We ate frozen or canned vegetables that my mother boiled for a half hour. Not good.
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      I suffered the boiling, too. But we had carrots, turnips, parsnips and other root vegetables year round. Probably why I won’t touch them as an adult. Broccoli was year round. Spring and summer vegetables like beans, peas, corn all came from the local farm stand. We never ate canned. Frozen was a back-up for the occasional too busy to cook fresh days. This was in New England in the 60s.
Rachael Hoffman-Dachelet

Having recently resumed eating meat after 30+ years as a vegetarian I also have recently resumed eating gelatin. One of the wonderful gelatin based marvels I have discovered is chiffon pie. While this picture looks horribly quiche like, I must say this entire post and thread have left me wanting to make a chiffon pie. Mmmmm, strawberry chiffon pie….
http://twitter.com/spleenal Spleenal

It doesn’t look nice, but I would try to eat it.
http://www.facebook.com/JamesTYoung James Young

Anyone else notice that the top left corner looks like the profile of a pig?
http://www.doggo.org doggo

“I can’t escape the feeling that this is a pie filled with ground organ meat and shredded pickles.”
You say that like it’s a bad thing.